Whispers of the Sea
by Aelia O'Hession
Summary: She sang a song that was meant to lure him to his death. Can Barbossa survive this call of death and change her life as well?
1. Speaking in Riddles

**Whispers of the Sea**

**By: Aelia O'Hession**

**Disclaimer: **This is a work of fanfiction. I am merely borrowing the genius of another for my own sordid needs. Therefore, I own nothing dealing with Pirates of the Caribbean.

**Chapter 1: Speaking in Riddles **

The last rays of a warm sun settled upon my outcropping of rocks. From this vantage point, the goings on of Port Royale can be observed with little hindrance. This particular spot is one of my absolute favorites of the entire sea.

Rolling onto my back, I soak up the last few rays of the day. The warmth is welcome on my skin which is constantly caressed by water. Idly I flick my tailfin in the clear Caribbean water. Longingly, I watch the last ship of the day pull into Port Royale. By all accounts, I should be using my sweet voice to charm the sailors to their doom, not longing to walk among them.

"I'm a pathetic mermaid," I mutter to myself dejectedly. "Perhaps it was an accident of Fate that I became one."

Comforted a little by that thought, I slip back into the water without a sound. My turquoise tail propels me in no particular direction, merely following the whim of the currents. The open ocean provides great freedom, but sometimes such freedom becomes overwhelmingly lonely. These days, companions are hard to find; curious sailors hunt for my elusive kinfolk.

Swimming aimlessly among the shipwrecks that litter the ocean floor, I sing a wordless melody. Lately, my melodies have been full of sadness and despair. Then a glint catches my eye from the depths. My dive is rewarded with a garnet chocker.

"Tia would like this."

Overcome with a longing to see my only friend, I turn to the direction of Tia's island. The waters leading to Tia's swampy home have always made me feel filthy and slimy. Her waters are nothing like the crisp waters of the open ocean. Keeping my head above the murky water, I carefully make my way down the river towards Tia's hut.

"Tia….Tia Dalma…" my musical voice echoes hauntingly through the swamp.

Tia's figure appears in her doorway. "Who be dere?"

"A friend."

"Dere be no friends who sing with de voice of doom." Tia turns and begins to move back into her hut. Then she turns about, a coy smile creeping across her face. "Unless…unless me friend be pearl-headed and tailed."

I smile at hearing Tia's endearment for me. "The very same." I swim to the dock where Tia now stands. With a little help from Tia, I manage to hoist myself onto the dock so I can sit and talk with her.

"Marisela, so good of you to come. What can I do you for?" Tia settles her self down beside me, arranging her skirts about her knees.

After a pause I say, "…company…"

"De sea be lonely, yes?"

Without meeting Tia's eyes, I nod in agreement. "I've been swimming these waters for over 200 years. Not once have I found a companion. I don't even have the will to sing sailors to their doom anymore." Frustrated, I slap the water with my tailfin. "I long for legs, Tia. I wish to walk amongst the people. I feel as though my nature has left me. Perhaps death is the best answer." Embarrassed at revealing my innermost feelings, I hide my face behind my turquoise tailfin.

Tia moves my tailfin to the side, revealing my face to her. "Pearl-head, you need not be so distressed. Tia knows of what you speak." She places a hand on my shoulder in comfort.

"I had what I wanted once, a long time ago. He had been the one sailor I could not charm to death with my song. Fate granted me mortality for one night, to try to win him and my mortality…" I trailed off, without knowing where to go next.

"And you still be searching. Him have your heart, no?"

I nod again, my sand colored locks dancing with their entangled pearls glistening in the candle light. As I move to settle down more comfortably, I remember the garnet necklace I have wrapped around my wrist.

"I've a token for you, my dear friend," I said while unwinding it from my wrist.

Tia handles it carefully, as though she was admiring an ancient artifact. "Beautiful; it matches me best dress," she added with a laugh. Her long fingers stroked the gem, telling me that she did indeed like my token.

"And I be having something for you as well." Swiftly she climbs the ladder leading to her hut. She returns a few moments later with something clutched in her hand. "I know you've always admired dem."

Tia presented me with an exotic top in deep turquoise, adorned with silver coins and beads. It is a belly-dancing top from Arabia. Every time my travels bring me that way, I look at them longingly. "It's gorgeous. Help me put it on?"

With deft hands, Tia tied the top at the base of my neck and then again at the middle of my back. It left my entire stomach bare, covering only my breasts, but that is of no concern of mine. With the top on, I feel a surge of confidence in myself, almost as if Tia had endowed it with some charm of sorts. "Where ever did you find this?"

"It were a trade," Tia says simply.

She need not say any more. I know what Tia Dalma is about.

"Mari, me pearl-head. Stay here a while with Tia. Dere may be a solution in de murky waters." She mounts the ladder that leads up to her hut. "Time tells all," she calls over her shoulder.

Once again, Tia Dalma is speaking in riddles. Despite how long I have known her, every once and a while it is disconcerting to hear her speak thusly. Nonplussed, I swim around to the back of her hut to the spot that she keeps for me. It is a little copse of trees with a hammock strung between two trees, slightly submerged in the water. On a rock sits a lantern and my favorite book of poetry. Settling in for the night, I allow sleep to prepare me for a few precious days of unconditional companionship.


	2. Wheel of Destiny

**Whispers of the Sea**

**Chapter 2: Wheel of Destiny**

The following days from my arrival at Tia's hut pass with a mixture of utter happiness and extreme sadness. There are times during my visit when I believe that there is more to Tia than meets the eye. Her understanding of my plight is all too keen. But I do not voice my ponderings to her, lest I destroy the precious gift of friendship that I have with her.

During my stay, despite Tia's certainty, I have yet to find an answer hidden in her murky waters. When I tell her of my misfortune, she shakes her head at me.

"Mari, me pearl head. Fret not over what ye seek. Destiny has a special plan for ye. Ye will know when de time has come."

I look up at her, my elbows resting on her dock. "I feel change coming. There are new currents in the waters of the world." An unbidden chill of foreboding runs up from the tip of my tailfin to the top of my head. "There be great evil at work."

Tia nods sagely before grasping my hands. "Keep yourself safe. Dere is much dat can go wrong if ye not be dere. De waters be not safe for lovers of freedom." Her head snaps up at a sound in the distance. "Ye must go now. De Wheel of Destiny be spinnin'."

Without further question, I slip beneath the murky waters and head away from her hut. My way is lit by the bayou people holding candles in memorial. Slipping behind a low hanging willow branch, I watch the passage of boats.

The boats contain pirates; that much is certain. All of them wear grim expressions and there suspicion of each other exudes thickly from them. The only female among them keeps her eyes downcast, a heavy guilt on her heart. The sorrow in these pirates is overwhelming. To ease my own suffering, I allow my voice to join the eerie lament sung by the bayou folk. Not wishing to linger much longer in this place of sorrow, I continue my course back to the open ocean. 

Out in the open waters, I wash myself clean of the muck that accumulates during my stays at Tia's. Fear begins to grip my heart in ice as I feel the evil growing in power. It is an unnatural evil; one that should have never come into existence. Diving deep where I cannot be seen, I swim in whatever direction the currents take me.

These open waters that once held so much joy for me, are becoming more and more desolate and uninviting as the years pass me by. Once, many years ago, I loved swimming to all corners of the Earth to sing my song. But I have never enjoyed the subsequent death of sailors from my song. When I had first been old enough to go singing, I had accepted the fate I brought to sailors. As the years passed, however, I began to despise the nature of my song. Whenever I saw a ship carelessly riding the waves, I would sing a wordless tune, so soft and faint that it drifted along the winds without any possible source.

Only once have I ever met a man who could not be charmed by my song. He was somehow different from all the other sailors I encountered in my life. We formed a sort of bond. He would stand on the prow of his magnificent ship listening to me sing as I floated below him. It was in him that I found my first friend. I took to following his ship on her travels. Oh the exciting places they visited! After a time, even his crew learned how to not be charmed to death by my song. Then one day, things suddenly changed. He told me one night to never come back and sing. Before he left me that night, he gave me a pearl ring as a memento of better times.

Floating in the waters now, I idly finger that pearl ring; a single pure white pearl set on a slim silver band. Suddenly a fast current sweeps by me, and on it I feel the malignant evil moving again. The die has been cast – the game has begun. However, there is something lurking just beneath the evil that makes me pause. This curious presence taunts me a few moments before dieing out. Then suddenly it swells up on a great cresting wave, hitting me with full force. I am overwhelmed by the familiarity. It is a presence that I have not felt in many years, but one that I have never forgotten.

"My Captain…" I breathe.

Diving deeply, I begin a fast paced journey towards the source. Nothing deters me from my course. I pass many intriguing lands and people, but I have not the time to explore them. For countless days I pursue this fleeting feeling. At times I cannot feel it in the waters, and it nearly destroys my resolve to seek it out. When I finally glimpse the great sails, my heart leaps with joy, then weeps with sorrow. Could my Captain have forgotten me?

Swimming closer to the ship of Oriental design, I begin to sing a song only he would recognize.

"Now that the time has come  
Soon gone is the day  
There upon some distant shore  
You'll hear me say

Long as the day in the summer time  
Deep as the wine dark sea  
I'll keep your heart with mine.  
Till you come to me.

There like a bird I'd fly  
High through the air  
Reaching for the sun's full rays  
Only to find you there

And in the night when our dreams are still  
Or when the wind calls free  
I'll keep your heart with mine  
Till you come to me

Now that the time has come  
Soon gone is the day  
There upon some distant shore  
You'll hear me say

Long as the day in the summer time  
Deep as the wine dark sea  
I'll keep your heart with mine.  
Till you come to me"

(Penelope's Song – Loreena McKennitt)

As I swim and sing, I can see the entire crew rush to the rails, searching for the source of the song. Snatches of conversation float on the air – exclamations about the impossibility of a mermaid and the sort of bad luck that comes with mermaids.

"She's here to sing us to our deaths!" One grey haired man exclaims. His tone, while fearful, is reverent; clearly he knows and believes the pirate lore.

Lazily I swim along the starboard side, heading towards the prow. I finish the last notes of the song before I turn my gaze up to the prow.

"My Captain…"

The broad brimmed hat turns to peer over the edge of the prow. For a few moments there is silence. The crew shifts nervously as the Captain takes in what he sees. "Marisela…" he whispers, almost like a prayer. "Toss a line!" he barks out to his nervous crew.

A line slaps the water beside me, and I seize it with little hesitation. The crew hauls me onto the deck, and nervously encircles me once I am aboard. Worried glances are cast from crewmember to crewmember, unsure of what to make of me.

"Ye felt the Turning den, me pearl-head?"

"Tia!" I cry excitedly.

She comes forward to embrace me. "I knew ye'd find de answer. But dere are many more waiting to be found."

Heavy booted footsteps alert us to the approach of the Captain. "Welcome aboard, Marisela."

I turn my head to face him. "Captain Barbossa," I acknowledge with a nod of my head.

With a wry smile Barbossa asks, "What be a lass like yourself doing swimming these waters?"

"Meeting my Destiny."


End file.
